It's unnerving how your children have the ability to ask you questions that you haven't quite - at 37 years old - come to a determination about yourself yet. Astute questions. Meaning-of-life type questions.

"Mom," my daughter asked offhandedly, "what if this is all a dream?"

"Oh?" I say, with as much nonchalance as I could muster. Maybe... I was hoping, maybe she wouldn't continue this train of thought. Truth be told, I was disarmed.

Have you seen Inception*?

"I mean," she says, to clarify for her momentarily-yet-intentionally-obtuse Mother, "what if, when wake in the morning we're not really waking. What if we are still sleeping, and everything we're doing is a dream we're having?"

"That would be something!" I said. Way to be articulate, Mom.

"Yeah," she continued, undeterred by my decidedly inarticulate responses, "because then how would we know what's REAL, Mom?"

"I don't know," hey, at least I can fall back on honesty, "that's an interesting thought. Maybe because we're all here? Or, am I dreaming too? Whose dream IS this?"

"Maybe we're all dreaming Mom."

Children, it seems, possess a deeper understanding of the universe.

*If you haven't seen Inception, you should see Inception.